Deindustrialization

Up until the 1960’s the cities flourished, they were very populated and continued to grow. However once the 1960s hit all that changed and the big question was WHY?

Well there are multiple reasons for this sudden economic restructuring of the cities. Prior to the 60’s the US was a highly industrialized country. Every city was filled with factories and high levels of production. The ways in which items were produced is completely different then today. Than they had a “beginning to end” mentality, industries controlled every aspect of what was put into the product. They did not have to outsource in order to come up with a completed product. During the 60’s is when the shift in production occurred. Companies began to outsource and no longer needed as much factory strength and therefore began to close up their factories. Production became differentiated and dispersed.

With this change low-skilled labor was no longer in such high demand. Blue collar workers were not as necessary and white collar workers became much more in demand. Managerial staff and overseers were the jobs that were needed. This deindustrialization had a great affect upon the cities. Most white collar workers already lived on the outskirts of the cities but even more began to migrate to the suburbs leaving the poor and unemployed behind in the inner cities. This made the inner cities even less attractive and there was no pull factor for other people. No one wanted to move into the cities.

Not only were white collar workers moving to the suburbs but the companies were moving as well. They were taking their industries to the outskirts as well and this led to a complete shift in the US economy. The deindustrialization of the cities along with the automobile and the highway system helped to reinforce the decentralization of the cities and the increasing density of the suburbs.